Alan Mendelsohn, Boy From Mars by Daniel Pinkwater

The fact that Alan Mendelsohn is from Mars is the least interesting thing about him and is incidental to the events of what we shall loosely call a plot.  Leonard Neeble and his friend Alan meet the con man Samuel Klugarsh who gives them a gadget that puts them into state 26, allowing them to control minds. Sort of. At first all they’re able to do is make people rub their bellies and take of their hats.  But it’s not about mind control, or going into that other plane of existence known as  Waka Waka. With Pinkwater it’s more about the journey than the destination. And what a journey! But even better than Alan Mendelsohn is:

The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death by Daniel Pinkwater

Walter’s friend Winston Bongo is the inventor of “snarking out,” or sneaking out at night to go to The Snark Theater to watch unusual, rare, and classic movies. On a solo Snark, Walter meets Rat, a punk rock girl with an eccentric family. Walter, Winston and Rat are on the search for Rat’s recently missing relative, but really, summarizing Pinkwater’s books is impossible so I won’t even try.

This one has genuine moments of real magic that outmagics anything in a Harry Potter book. There’s one particularly evocative scene with a performing chicken that is both absurd and beautiful. And no one describes food better than Pinkwater; baked potatoes, pastries, bowls of Bermuda Triangle chili. Everything about these books is delicious.

Skullduggery Pleasant By Derek Landry

This series is more in the realm of contemporary fantasy, with lots of Irish wit. It’s about Skullduggery Pleasant, a skeleton sorcerer detective, and his protégé, twelve year old Stephanie Edgeley AKA Valkyrie Cain. Lot of action, adventure, and the occasional horrible pun. There are over 18 books in the series, but I’m afraid to say I’ve only read the first three, which I adored. The first book came out in 2007.

Neal Shusterman’s Skinjacker Trilogy

This one is also from the mid 2000s. The tone of Shusterman’s books is more on the dark and serious side. The series begins with Everlost, which is also the name of the limbo between heaven and earth where the book takes place. The recently deceased kids in the story can’t be seen by the living world, but some of them have learned to “skinjack” or inhabit the bodies of the living.  

Shusterman at his best writes real horror, and The Skinjacker series is as horrific as middle grade fiction gets. Not Goosebumps jump scare horror, but real existential, what happens when we die, dread. The other books in the series are Everwild and Everfound. Five stars!

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson

Another 2007 release. I’ve only read the first of the series, but I can’t wait to read the sequels. Alcatraz Smedry’s clumsiness and general tendency to destroy things is both the bane of his existence and his superpower. He has bounced from foster home to foster home because of it. On his 13^th birthday he meets his biological grandfather for the first time.  His grandfather informs him that he is part of a great legacy of Smedrys who each have a strange inborn talent that at first seems like a nuisance, but turns out to be their secret weapon, like his cousin Sing Sing who has the ability to trip and fall at just the right moments. And part of that legacy is their ongoing battle with a conspiracy of Evil Librarians who secretly rule the world.  What more is there to say?

Your Pal Fred, A Graphic Novel by Michael Rex

The most recent of the bunch, Your Pal Fred came out in 2022. Fred is a relentlessly friendly boy robot from a more enlightened time, who is revived by scavengers to find himself in a future post apocalyptic hellscape. In contrast to the cynical world he finds himself in, Fred believes in friendship, kindness, and fairness, and brings a beam of sunshine to everyone he meets. In the midst of this chaos, can Fred negotiate peace between the two biggest nastiest warlords of the apocalypse, Lord Bonkers and Papa Mayhem?

First in a series. The second book, Your Pal Fred, Low Power was released this year, and I can’t wait to check it out!